This is not how digital transcendence was supposed to be
Opinion
Funnelling investment into digital content, viewed by a perpetually distracted and unhappy population, will only exacerbate society’s problems. It’s time for a rethink, writes Chris Herbert-Lo.
The best thing you can find online is a reason to go offline.”
Digital transcendence is the idea that humanity will evolve beyond its physical, biological limitations by merging with digital technology. A theory that we might one day upload our consciousness, memory and identity into cyberspace, achieving ‘digital immortality.’ Except, in many ways, we’re already well past that point.
UK adults spend an average of four and a half hours online each day. For 18-to 24-year-olds, it’s over six hours a day. Those figures exclude time spent working, so when you take away sleeping, eating, and the functional necessities of a human life, what remains is largely digital.
We recognise this personally. The commute into the office, the stint on the sofa, the suspiciously long delay before switching off the bedside lamp, all accompanied by that little glowing rectangle promising to transport us somewhere else.
We recognise it professionally. From the continual shift of budgets towards digital channels, to the celebrities and creators gracing the stage of industry events – including SXSW London this week – offering to help brands engage people in the online world.
The race to scale content
Just as content is the lifeblood of the online world, creators have become the heart that keeps it pumping.
Perhaps upset that anyone but them is making money from this system, agency hold-cos such as WPP are now offering ‘content production at scale’, enabling advertisers to flood the digital world with assets.
It’s a move which overlooks a point highlighted by Omar Oakes that even masters of the game, the social media influencers and creators, run into trouble when trying to scale their offering beyond an area of their initial appeal.
In practice, scale in the content space usually adheres to a rulebook shaped by the rational, reliable and already validated, especially when that scale is being aided by AI. Meaning everything starts to fit the same pattern of a ‘creative’ approach. Like a Mephisto Waltz, everyone is drawn into the same spell, moving together in a perfectly orchestrated dance.
Funding of the attention economy
Content plays a central role in the attention economy. When a brand or creator makes content, or when a brand monetises content by advertising alongside it, it’s not just a matter of buying media space but also about funding what keeps people on the platform.
At the same time, that budget isn’t going towards quality programming on AV channels, reporting from news publishers, or supporting local communities in the way money spent on OOH does. It’s flowing into platforms designed to keep us scrolling rather than stopping.
From a societal perspective, this appears to create problems. It’s tempting to view the online world as a place of escape from a physical reality that admittedly hasn’t been having its best run. But the online world doesn’t just offer escapism; it can reshape perception of the physical world, and perhaps even behaviour within it.
Every month there’s a new set of stories about the harm which the online world appears to be doing to people’s real lives. The last fortnight includes analysis of declining birth rates across countries which align to smartphone proliferation, and the country’s top doctors saying social media is as bad for young people as smoking.
A media industry where investment is increasingly funnelled towards a handful of digital platforms is unlikely to sustain the diversity and quality of media we once took for granted. A population perpetually distracted and unhappy in life is unlikely to produce a positively engaged, broadly connected audience of future consumers.
This isn’t to argue that any of these things can necessarily be undone, at least not quickly or easily. It’s to highlight that they should be considered when communicating with people, especially when those comms contribute to the system that creates the problem.
When everything is content, the task is to avoid simply making more
The antidote to all of this isn’t to jump in and scale. It requires smart thinking to reject the steps of Mephisto’s Waltz when the whole room has fallen into line. Thinking which is more human, and more understanding of the cultural changes and tensions the content game itself is creating.
Pinterest’s recent campaign strapline “the best thing you can find online is a reason to go offline” feels beautifully refreshing and honest in an industry built on maximising time spent.
Likewise, Persil’s Dirt Is Good, a campaign dating back to 2005, now resonates more than ever. What may have started as nostalgia for grass stains and scraped knees is now a rebellion against lives increasingly lived through screens.
Both campaigns look beyond capturing attention, aiming to direct it towards something which gives more back. The promise of a life well lived.
After all, digital transcendence is about empowerment beyond previous limitations, not endlessly refreshing a screen in hopes of finding something better.
Chris Herbert-Lo is a strategy partner at the7stars. Read his new monthly column for The Media Leader on the first Tuesday of each month.